The “like” button and Finnish transitivity

Authors

• Max Wahlström Helsingin yliopisto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61197/fjl.145021

Keywords:

transitivity , Finnish, partitive, elative, social media, Facebook, language change

Abstract

This paper examines the linguistic impact of the “like” button in Finnish, focusing on the verb tykätä (‘to like’). The introduction of tykätä in the sense of ‘to give a like’ tested the original verb’s morphosyntactic limits. In adaptation to the new semantics the partitive case, an object case of Finnish, is occasionally used instead of the expected elative, among other changes. While they are minor phenomena in terms of frequency, these innovative features additionally highlight some of the characteristics of the Finnish transitive construction. This study discusses whether these changes should be considered a result of language contact, concluding that intentionally resorting to polysemy in terminology planning sometimes has quirky linguistic outcomes.

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